Six finalists will be granted access to various potential funders to support their concept's development.

Calling all start-ups and payments entrepreneurs! Visa Europe Collab, Visa Europe’s international innovation hub, and The Accelerator Network announced this week the launch of a competition to spark, develop and evolve ideas for innovative payment products and services.

Visa Europe Collab and The Accelerator Network have announced the launch of a competition for innovative payment products and services.

The competition is divided into three broad categories, each “with huge scope and potential to shape the future of the payments landscape” (Niamh de Niese, Director of Innovation Delivery at Visa Europe Collab). The first, Digital Me, seeks personal digital data storage solutions that both ensure privacy and easy access to the right data at the right time.

The second category is titled Data Me, which will encourage solutions allowing easy control over the sharing of personal data with sites and stores. Finally, the Group Payments category is looking to make payment for something as a group easier.

Judged on the level of innovation, proof of concept, and evidence of commercial interest, the six finalists will be granted access to Visa partners, member banks and retailers, as well as to The Accelerator Network in order to support their development; not to mention an invitation to Tel Aviv for the final judging.

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The winning team will go on to develop proof of concept for their idea over a 100-day process, from scoping, iteration and qualification through to market testing and design.

Offering these businesses the chance to work with … the team’s wealth of industry experience, and the company’s connections …, will be invaluable in helping them scale their businesses.

As Ian Merricks, chair of The Accelerator Network, stated: “Offering these businesses the chance to work with Visa Europe Collab with the team’s wealth of industry experience, and the company’s connections with more than 3,000 European member banks and financial organisations, will be invaluable in helping them scale their businesses.”

This competition announcement resonates with the recent hype surrounding the future of payment systems. Indeed, in a recent interview with Finance Magnates, SafeCharge’s CFO, Ali Khwaja, emphasised the significance of electronic payments, which are undergoing 18-20% annual growth. Estimates used by Khwaja pinned electronic payments in the UK and US markets at around 35%.

As such, much focus has been placed on the development and application of new technologies; blockchain being the most widely lauded. It comes as no surprise then that Visa is keen to get a slice of the action.